Universal scaling law of electrical turbulence in the mammalian heart.

Noujaim, Sami F; Berenfeld, Omer; Kalifa, Jérôme; Cerrone, Marina; Nanthakumar, Kumaraswamy; Atienza, Felipe; Moreno, Javier; Mironov, Sergey et al. · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2007

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Many biological processes, such as metabolic rate and life span, scale with body mass (BM) according to the universal law of allometric scaling: Y = aBM(b) (Y, biological process; b, scaling exponent). We investigated whether the temporal properties of ventricular fibrillation (VF), the major cause of sudden and unexpected cardiac death, scale with BM. By using high-resolution optical mapping, numerical simulations and metaanalysis of VF data in 11 mammalian species, we demonstrate that the interbeat interval of VF scales as VF(cycle) (length) = 53 x BM(1/4), spanning more than four orders of magnitude in BM from mouse to horse.

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